The old Godzilla movies made by Japan’s Toho studio between 1954 and 2004 were B-grade monster movies. They were cheesy and primitive, for the most part, but displayed the charm of inventive filmmakers who were trying to transcend the limitations of budget and technology ...

Oliver Stone’s first hit as a director was “Salvador,” way back in 1986, which looked at a small Latin American nation’s descent into political murder, funded mostly by its larger neighbor to the north. Now, with “Savages,” he seems to have come full circle, ...